11/08/2013

Creativity and a Day at Sea

Greetings to you from somewhere off of the coast of Sicily, Italy. Circumnavigating Italy for 10 days, my husband and I are on a cruise ship sailing from Venice to Rome. Today we had arranged for a tour of Taormina, Sicily and then a lunch at a private villa where the photographic views are said to be magnificent.

I will admit that I was at first more than a little cranky with Mother Nature when the seas became too rough for us to go ashore. We had arisen at 6a.m., showered, dressed for the day and eaten breakfast before the 8:15a.m. departure time. As there was “liquid sunshine on Sicily today and tendering to port might endanger your lives”, the captain announced today would be another day at sea. Disappointedly we returned to our room and quickly fell asleep for an early morning nap.

After awakening from my nap, I decided to let go of my expectations and begin the day again by “going with the flow”.

I actually enjoy days at sea with nothing scheduled. I just did not have today scheduled in my mind to be a do-nothing day.

The ship quickly put together an emergency revised schedule of activities on the ship for today including a Popcorn Viewing of The Lone Ranger. I guess I am not the only one wondering what to do with myself today.

Now, as I sit in our cabin, and begin to settle into my revised day, I am starting to relax and breathe. I have turned on Vivaldi classical guitar music I brought along “just in case”. I am sitting and looking out into the dancing waves of the ocean with my feet propped up in a chair. I guess I will pull back the curtains further to see what more I can see as the world slips by.

In his Italian/English accent the captain just announced to the ship that as we are passing through the Straits of Massina, “the current and a wind it is strong enough a that the ship may a be leaning a little a to the a side a so a please a be a somewhere you can a have a rail for your a hand or even a better, please a take a seat a.”

My husband just awoke from his early morning nap. As he reviewed the list of revised activities on the ship for the day, he exclaimed, ”This is Tuesday, not Wednesday!” He seemed relieved and a little delighted to have awakened to more time at sea than he thought we had.

We are now sitting on our balcony with orange juice and tomato juice (each with just a touch of Vodka). I am not sure the captain meant for us to take a seat in the chairs on our balcony, but protected from the wind by our balcony walls, it really is very pleasant sitting here listening to the sounds of the rolling Tyrrhenian Sea and looking out into it’s deep blue water.

Upon boarding the ship, it seemed to have taken a jake-break to help shift out of the activation gear into the relaxation gear we had planned for tour cruise.

Today, we both seem to have shifted gears into the relaxation mode on very short notice.

I am excited to have extra time today to look through some of the photographs I have taken so far on our trip. I would love to share some of them with you.

First, here are a few photos from Rome.

Now a few from Venice if the Internet aboard the ship will hold on a little longer.

I will stop for now as the Internet is becoming weaker.

Thank you for letting me share our trip with you.

More to come soon I hope about our visit to Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, Monte Carlo and more of Italy.

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Creativity and a Day at Sea

Greetings to you from somewhere off of the coast of Sicily, Italy. Circumnavigating Italy for 10 days, my husband and I are on a cruise ship sailing from Venice to Rome. Today we had arranged for a tour of Taormina, Sicily and then a lunch at a private villa where the photographic views are said to be magnificent.

I will admit that I was at first more than a little cranky with Mother Nature when the seas became too rough for us to go ashore. We had arisen at 6a.m., showered, dressed for the day and eaten breakfast before the 8:15a.m. departure time. As there was “liquid sunshine on Sicily today and tendering to port might endanger your lives”, the captain announced today would be another day at sea. Disappointedly we returned to our room and quickly fell asleep for an early morning nap.

After awakening from my nap, I decided to let go of my expectations and begin the day again by “going with the flow”.

I actually enjoy days at sea with nothing scheduled. I just did not have today scheduled in my mind to be a do-nothing day.

The ship quickly put together an emergency revised schedule of activities on the ship for today including a Popcorn Viewing of The Lone Ranger. I guess I am not the only one wondering what to do with myself today.

Now, as I sit in our cabin, and begin to settle into my revised day, I am starting to relax and breathe. I have turned on Vivaldi classical guitar music I brought along “just in case”. I am sitting and looking out into the dancing waves of the ocean with my feet propped up in a chair. I guess I will pull back the curtains further to see what more I can see as the world slips by.

In his Italian/English accent the captain just announced to the ship that as we are passing through the Straits of Massina, “the current and a wind it is strong enough a that the ship may a be leaning a little a to the a side a so a please a be a somewhere you can a have a rail for your a hand or even a better, please a take a seat a.”

My husband just awoke from his early morning nap. As he reviewed the list of revised activities on the ship for the day, he exclaimed, ”This is Tuesday, not Wednesday!” He seemed relieved and a little delighted to have awakened to more time at sea than he thought we had.

We are now sitting on our balcony with orange juice and tomato juice (each with just a touch of Vodka). I am not sure the captain meant for us to take a seat in the chairs on our balcony, but protected from the wind by our balcony walls, it really is very pleasant sitting here listening to the sounds of the rolling Tyrrhenian Sea and looking out into it’s deep blue water.

Upon boarding the ship, it seemed to have taken a jake-break to help shift out of the activation gear into the relaxation gear we had planned for tour cruise.

Today, we both seem to have shifted gears into the relaxation mode on very short notice.

I am excited to have extra time today to look through some of the photographs I have taken so far on our trip. I would love to share some of them with you.

First, here are a few photos from Rome.

Now a few from Venice if the Internet aboard the ship will hold on a little longer.

I will stop for now as the Internet is becoming weaker.

Thank you for letting me share our trip with you.

More to come soon I hope about our visit to Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, Monte Carlo and more of Italy.